


Gently into the Good Night

by CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Genre: F/F, Headcanon, Post-Game, Spoilers, burial, personal headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 12:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16197179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines/pseuds/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines
Summary: Kassandra's Burial





	Gently into the Good Night

**Author's Note:**

> This contains spoilers of the Modern Day Ending of Assassin's Creed Odyssey. If you want to play the game unspoiled, click the "Mark for Later" button and come back once you've gotten there!

As Layla stared down at the lifeless body in the ground, a horrid cold shiver crept up her spine.

A cold that came from the fact that she had just been in Kassandra's shoes, thousands of years ago, and yet here she laid: lifeless and barely going cold on the floor of the cave.

Layla noticed an envelope inside of Kassandra's suit jacket, peeking from a pocket inside of it, which she retrieved it reverently and as she started reading its contents with a shaky hand. A stone of an immeasurable weight dropped in her stomach after reading the first lines for the realization finally clicked in her mind: Kassandra knew she was going to die the moment she gave Layla the staff.

_To whom I give The Staff of Hermes Trismegistus:_

_I write this knowing full well that once I walk in there, I will not walk out._

_I've had a very long life. You may have an idea of just how much, if the information that I've received over the years is accurate and you truly can see the past through a science that rivals that of The Precursors themselves (or perhaps human science being able to do that was part of their plan all along)_

_I've had over 2,000 years to set my affairs straight, don't worry about this being a Last Will and Testament. Rather take it as a last request from someone who's going on a very long nap after a tiresome day of labour._

_I trust you will not leave my body down there to rot, just as I didn't left my father's body millenia ago._

_I'd like to be buried in following coordinates. Rest assured that everything has been taken care of so you can bury me there without raising suspicion. I trust you and your people are skilled enough to move my body there without problem_

_(In Ancient Greek) Farewell- Kassandra of Sparta_

Layla had seen the memory of Pythagoras' death but one thing was seeing it as the memory of someone else and a very different thing was processing that not only she had met the person who had lived that memory but that that person had seen it a over two thousand years ago before dying herself just a few minutes ago.

Getting the body out of the cave was easy, Layla just had to follow the way Kassandra had used to get down there with just her suit. The hard part had been to accept the fact that someone would so easily embrace their deaths and plan accordingly; for as Layla came out of the hidden passage Kassandra had used, she found a van with its back door open and showing a black, simple coffin open and ready to receive Kassandra's lifeless body; at each side of the coffin there were shovels for the digging.

The reactions of Dr. Bibeau, who in equal parts was too mesmerized and eager to make sense of it all; wanting to dissect Kassandra's body for understanding and, on the other hand, was so afraid of whatever science within the Staff that had allowed Kassandra to live so long that she had suggested to cremate the body right away, were something of a comfort for Layla; who needed the certainty of the doctor's cautious yet curious mind after having her world shaken so abruptly.

Either option seemed the right one and to Layla, either option was just as preferable, given her curious mind and her respect for a woman like Kassandra, who had done so much in her life and met so many people of importance to history. As she meditated on what to do, Alannah revealed that the set of coordinates that Kassandra had left for Layla were a place near where Ancient Sparta had once stood.

"According to the records, the place is a cementery  and you're not gonna believe this: Two days ago a woman named Kassandra Argead was buried there. The local newspaper I'm looking at has the picture of our Spartan in the front page"

"She was in the news?" Layla asked intrigued, not believing they had missed it.

"Yeah-" Alannah said, a bit incredulous over the mic "Here it says she was a known benefactor who seems to have kept the region from going under after the 2008 Crisis. According to this the cause of death was a brain linfoma, died in her sleep. Left everything to a trust fund that will bail out small businesses all over the country"

"A peaceful death" Dr. Bibeau commented.

"And even in death, she looked after the people of Greece" Layla mused lowly, more as an inner thought than a statement she wanted the others to hear as she made up her mind and simply announced distractedly, more of a statement than an order "Put it in the GPS. Let's hope she can forgive me for not wearing my best at her funeral"

* * *

The road to the location was decorated by beautiful sights and the roads were clear enough that Layla was able to let her mind wonder, and more than once it was the black monolith in the back that occupied Layla's thoughts. It was a bit eerie and more than once Layla wondered how anyone who dealt with coffins could do their job without feeling anxious. Yet she also felt proud, for she was burying a great warrior who dedicated and ultimately gave her life so that mankind would endure.

The cementery was in a secluded area which allowed them enter with the van and drive up to the grave the records marked as Kassandra's, finding it at the foot of a tree apart from the rest of the graves; the grave site itself was empty, a casket lowering mechanism in place and ready to be used with a mound of dirt beside it; making Layla impressed once more by Kassandra's ability to do all of this without anybody noticing.

And when she said that not only did she meant Kassandra's planning of her death but also for living so long and not even once giving in to the tentation of altering things openly, to use the staff or any other Isu artifact to change the course of Mankind; instead choosing to keep a delicate balance between factions with the hopes that one day it would all come to an end and a keeper was no longer needed.

Dr. Bibeau helped Layla move the coffin from the van and they carefully placed it on top of the straps of the mechanism, suprised with how light it was. The two of them were able to carry it with ease to Kassandra's resting place and Alannah indicated Layla over her earpiece where the button to activate the mechanism so that the casket could be lowered.

All of them kept a respecful silence as the casket slowly went ever deeper into the ground and it was the silence that made Layla's mind relive Kassandra's last moments, every detail new and every bit of Layla's mind analysing them.

_"I have fought in too many wars-" Kassandra spoke tired, as if she could feel the weight of it all. Eyes wide and as awake as ever, their mahogany color ever bright and shinning._

_"I have seen too many people die" Kassandra's throat bobbed just a little, as if it was going to leave a sob escape it and Layla just knew that sentence came with a quantity of sorrow that no human should ever have to endure._

_"I have walked from one end of the Earth to the other" 'And what tales you must have held in your memories' Layla thought to herself then and now as she relieved the moment, most liekly a question she'd make herself for years to come._

_"This...belongs to you now" Kassandra offered The Staff and Layla didn't really thought of what was about to happen, her mind too busy processing the fact that she finally had it._

_"Promise me one thing: When you're done, destroy it. Destroy them all" Kassandra's eyes shone with a million emotions behind them, but Layla was hunted by what she recognised the most in them and in her voice: Despair._

_In her last moments on this Earth, Kassandra of Sparta, Blood of Leónidas, begged Layla to end it all._

_And then the release, the golden shine and the prayer as Kassandra's last breath left her._

They quickly removed the mecanism and ceremoniously dropped a fistful of dirt each before getting the shovels from the van and starting to cover the coffin with dirt, filling the grave site quickly with dirt. It was until then that Layla noticed the tombstone next to Kassandra's grave.

A simple thing, old and worn down by time but still readable.

A knot of mixed feelings formed in Layla's throat as she read the inscription in Ancient Greek, knowing full well who was buried there and her heart fluttered a bit at the memory of whom Kassandra would lie next to forever.

_Kyra of Delos, under the eyes of the Gods, beloved wife of Kassandra of Sparta._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope this was good
> 
> Leave a review. They're loved!


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